Les Black

As a student at the University of Toronto, Les Black earned five intercollegiate boxing titles from 1920-1924 and was selected to represent Canada in the middleweight division at the 1924 Summer Olympics. At the Games he defeated his first three opponents, Pierre Feidt of Luxembourg, Adolphe Lefkowitch of the United States, and Boy Murphy of Ireland, before being bested in the semifinals by Jack Elliott of Great Britain. Belgium’s Joseph Beecken would go on to take the bronze medal in a walkover.

Black’s boxing career ended when he graduated from Toronto’s medical school in 1926, but he later returned to his alma mater to coach the sport from 1934 through 1940. Athletically, he was active in track and field, rugby, and football as a student and, in his later years, became successful at pistol shooting, winning two Canadian national championships. By career he was an orthopedic surgeon and rose to the positions of chief of orthopedics and chief of surgey at Toronto East General Hospital (now Michael Garron Hospital), before a stroke at the age of 70 forced him to retire.